Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-10-01
BURNS CHILDHOOD.
A Thrilling Incident of the Early Days of
 the Famous Poets Life.

the Famous Poets Life.
 The month of January, 1759, was long remembered in the west of Scotland as the stormicst of the whole year, none save the boldeSt fishermen-and very few few of them-dared to venture out to sea in the teeth of the roaring gales which hadrraged increasingly ever since Christmas Eve, while the hardest peas ants of the hills, though familiar from their childhood with every ridge and hollow for miles round, often had hard work to find their way from place to place through the binding snows and furious winds of that stormy season.
 The last day of the month had come, and still the wild weather continued unabated. But neither the howl of the rushing blast nor the crash of the fall ing trees along the frozen river dis turbcd the slumbers of little boy, hardly a week old, who lay sleeping in the rude clay hovel which his fathers spade had hastily thrown up not many months before.
 A sturdy little fellow he was, and his strong arms and limbs, fully revealed by the kicking off of the tartan shawl that had been spread over him, might have served any painter as model for an infant Hercules, Well might his mother look loudly and proudly at him as she sat near the wicker cradle, hard at work upon a half-fnished pair of blue stockings, such as the Scottish peasantry of that time used to wear.
 But furious gust of wind, which flung the snow in huge drifts against the rattling easement, gave another turn to her thoughts, which were, in truth, any thing but pleasant ones. Her husband was out in the full fury of this storm. For there was no staying at home for him; however wild the weather might be, owork he must go And the worst of it was that no matter how hard he might work, or how hard she might work to help him, they seemed only to be getting poorer and poorer. Every thing appeared to go wrong with them somehow, and if this winter were to provea as hard as the last they would be sorely straitened to find food for themselves and their | child.
 Another and n ficrcer blast made the door and window rattle as if it would drive them in, calling up to the lonely woman's troubled mind visions of the deep snows and treaehcrous ice and steep slippery paths and falling rocks which had widowed many wife during that terrible month. Was the sorrow which had already fallen upon SO many now about to strike her likewise?
 Fiercer and fiercer grew the fury.-ef the storm, making the frail clay walls literally rock with every gust; but'the lonely watcher was far too much occu- pied with the thought of her husband s danger to heed her own.
 "Oh, only wtsh he were hamew she muttered, clasping her hands con yulsively.
 Crash! The weakened end of the eastern wall gave way before a tre- mendous blast, and fell inward with q fearful noise, shaking the whole house from top to bottom, and filling it with binding cloud of dust. The mother sprang to her feet and with one bound she was beside the cradle, bending over it as if to shield the infant with her own body. At the same moment the tottering door was dashed open, and her husband came bursting into the room, followed by two of his neigh borS.
 Haste ye, lassie; there's nae time to lose" he shouted, snatching up his wife's light figure, like an infant, ill his strong aims, while one of his comrades caught the baby out of its cradle.
 There rds no time to lose, indeed. Scarcely had the last of tue three men sprang through the doorway when the whole roof came crashing in, and the hovel fell to pieces like house of cards. Pressing closely together, the brave men fought their way foot by foot, and bore the rescued mother and child safely to the house of farmer who lived little higher up the stream. When they entered it the farmers old father (who was fast approaching his seventieth year, although his eye was still as bright and his cheek as ruddy as that of many a younger man) rose from his seat by the fireside to greet his unexpected guests, who told him ill few hurried words what had hap. pened.
 1.-The Lord bless ye; my bonnie bairn!' said the patriarch, laying hi: hand tenderly upon the child's head '1'm thinkin' He will hae some great work for ye to do yet, since He has stretched forth His hand to save yei wee life frae the storm"
 The old man lived to see his prophe cy fulfilled more than twenty year. later, when that rescued baby made al Scotland ring with the name of Rober Burns. Ker, in Harper'S Young People.